Delray 2020 UPDATE!

John Yandell

In my first piece about the Delray Beach Open 2020 (Click Here) I wrote that the strength of the event was the number of players in the draw that were younger and/or with lower rankings, players you might overlook or miss at larger events in the rush/crush to see the very top players.

And having been there for most of the week no doubt that is true. Particularly with Nick Krygios pulling out at the last minute with an alleged wrist injury.

I had a list of a few players I hadn't seen and I got to see almost all of them play live—and I was also surprised by the play of one player who wasn't on the list at all. First Ugo Humbert is real. Tall, lefty, dangerous serve, solid powerful groundstrokes and one his greatest assets is an intense fighting spirit.

He had some trouble with Stephen Koslov, a wily young American and a fighter in his own right, losing the first set in a breaker but then basically smoking him 3 and 1. Then he beat another young player I was interested in, the Serbian Kecmanović, again in straight sets.

Kecmanović is definitely a top 100 player but I don't see him getting close to the very top. He's strong, but that's maybe the problem. His strokes seemed muscled. He fights for every ball but his movement isn't that explosive.

Humbert's next win was really impressive. He dominated Francis Tiafoe 1 and 2. He's already won his first ATP tourney earlier in this year in Auckland. Won't be his last. I could easily see him in the top 20, maybe higher.

I'd seen Reilly Opelka play live a few times. But he has definitely improved in the last year. The serve at 6'11” is obviously his greatest strength. It's borderline unreturnable. But his forehand has gotten more aggressive, and also probably more consistent. It's also a big weapon.

The backhand still looks like a liability. It's stiff and his swings are often truncated, blocked almost. You can't help wondering why he doesn't have a one-handed backhand. But that's how I feel about a lot of tall power players. They start with the two and once they get down the road aways it's too late.

Reilly's movement I would not call graceful, but it's improved too. He moves better than John Isner, though that's not the highest possible compliment.

And, if you were following, he won the tournament. My friend Jay Berger is one of his coaches so I am going to say Reilly's growth is part his doing. He is intense like Jay was!

He beat Milos Raonic in 3 in the semis, and then because of rain, had to go out and play the final later that same day. He hit 27 aces.

The guy he beat in the final, Yosihito Nishioka, was another top 50 player I'd never seen. 24 years, 5 feet 7, lefty, great mover, ultra consistent. He actually beat Humbert in the semi in 3 sets in heavy wind.

It was almost shocking to see Nishioka standing next to Reilly after the match, with Reilly being almost a foot and a half taller.

Reilly also beat McKenzie McDonald 3 and 4 in the round of 16. Mackenzie is very interesting because, although shorter than most of the other younger Americans, he has an actual all court game.

He looks to go to the net and volleys well when he gets there. More on that later when I do some articles on his development with my friend and Bay Area coach Rosie Bareis who coached Mackie from a young age.

Radu Albot won this event last year. He is impressive too. Great mover, very intense. Not tall and not powerful relative to the big hitters. But at 50 in the world and age 30 I don't see him going up another level.

Surprisingly, he lost to Jack Sock in the first round in 3 sets. Sock still looks over weight and is not that quick. But he has a big, big forehand. He actually cried after the win--he seemed almost shocked.

The one player who was not on the radar for me was another young American, Brandon Nakashima. Wow. He grew up in California and played half a season for Virginia, then turned pro.

I was walking by the practice courts and spotted another old friend, Pat Cash, hitting serves to a player I didn't recognize. It was Brandon and Cash had just been named his coach.

Brandon came in ranked about 300. He won two rounds, before losing in 3 to Nishioka. His is 6' 1” and has huge, very flat groundstrokes. Cash compared his ball to Jimmy Connors. He is going to be an interesting player to watch.

So another fun year in Delray. The only disappointment was the jellyfish when I went to the beach. I noticed no one was out in the ocean more than a few feet, looked down and realized why. I still got in up to my neck for awhile, so at least I got a partial fountain of youth effect from the Atlantic Ocean.

I was able to console myself about the ocean, however, with some fine dining. Kyle Lacroix and I went to Atlantic Grill—east coast scallops are the best. And then there was that shark tank I had read about. About 5 or 6 mid size guys swimming back and forth real fast. Probably not politically correct, but fascinating.

Two nights later, Kyle and his fiancé Lisa took me to the Capital Grille in Boca. Wow again. Very elegant but not stuffy. Had the filet mignon Oscar style with crab, asparagus, and bernaise sauce.

Additional thoughts! Delray is a tennis town. Not a resort tennis town, but a tennis tennis town. Sitting in the stands I was surrounded by people talking about their games, the games of various pros, and what was happening in the matches they were watching. In awe of Reilly Opelka’s serve. Rooting for all the young American players. Making technical and tactical comments. True, not always accurate comments but what it did show was extreme avidity.

The Delray Tennis Center is impressive! They have over a dozen gorgeous, perfect, crunchy, green clay HarTru courts. These are for the use of the natives, but visitors can rent them as well. I watched the maintenance guys adding topping, rolling them, sweeping the lines everyday. There are a lot of people in California who would be thrilled to play on courts like those—but they don’t exist.

And on my last day in Delray I was at a UPS store and coming out I spotted something else that surprised or actually shocked me. A Tennis Shop. Fred’s Tennis Shop. I introduced myself noted how surprising it was to find him and Fred said, “There aren’t many of us left.” But apparently Fred, who is also a USPTA pro, is thriving in Delray. I went and read some of his reviews and people consider him to be very knowledgeable and maybe the best stringer in the area. His prices are competitive, and he gets 5 stars for customer service. I don’t know about your town but there hasn’t been a dedicated tennis shop in San Francisco for 20 years.

So back is SF now. Headed to the Miami Open at the end of March. But hope to be back in Delray again next year!